New Dimensions in Jaina Logic

Author(s): Mahaprajna Acharya, Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Today and Tommorrow Printers and Publishers

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Conditional Dialectics
thing. A substance, if it were exclusively possessed of the attribute of existence bereft of non-existence, would not be able to preserve its substancehood. Negation is predicated with reference to other things and so it is called relative or 'dependent on others'. The negation acts as a protecting shield by not allowing the encroachment of alien existences. A pot exists in respect of its own substance and does not exist in respect of an alien substance-both these propositions reveal the truth that the pot is a relative entity, as much dependent on itself as on others for its definite nature. This relativism falsifies either of the propositions, viz. the moment of existence of a thing is bereft of non-existence or that the moment of non-existence of a thing is bereft of existence. Existence and nonexistence (affirmation and negation) are simultaneous. But this simultaneity is incapable of being expressed by a single word at a single moment. This is why a third proposition is requisitioned for expressing the simultaneity of existence and non-existence through the expression 'indescribable' (avaktavya). The implication is that the existence and non-existence are necessarily co-existent, but they are unspeakable simultaneously by a single expression on account of the absence of any linguistic symbol capable of discharging this ambivalent function.
It would follow from the above that there are only three fundamental predicables, viz. existent, non-existent and indescribable. The remaining four predicables are but the different combinations of these three taken two or three at a time. In the Agamic period the use of three predicables was mostly in vogue. The use of the seven predicables is also found in some cases.**
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*In the case of the objects that are non-composite (for instance, a monad), the attributes are only three in number, viz. self, not-self and indescribable. Here 'indescribable' means the impossibility of the object being spoken of or described exclusively as 'self' or 'not-self' because of the same object being both (self and notself) at the sme time. These three attributes, however, become six in the case of a dyad (a composite body of two space-points) as follows: (1) self, (2) not-self, (3) indescribable, (4) self and not-self (one attribute for each space-point), (5) self and indescribable (one attribute for each space-point), (6) not-self and indescribable (one attribute for each space-point). These six ways again become seven in the case of a triad (a composite body of three space-points) in the following way: (1) to (6) as above, and (7) self, not-self and indescribable (one attribute for each of the three space-points). Here the fourth, fifth and sixth ways have each two more subdivisions. Thus the fourth, viz. self and not self, has the following two additional subdivisions (1) self (for two space-points) and not-self (for the remaining one spacepoint). The fifth and sixth ways also have similar subdivisions.